Paying for media content through a pay wall seems to be a daft idea. Why pay for stuff that is free elsewhere? That's not to say people won't pay for content, look at the success of iTunes and app stores. Their success is due at least in part to the ease of making payments. We see challenge. For consumers there’s just too much noise in the Digital Landscape. It’s random, raw, repetitive. And for content providers, in this Digital Land of the Free, where’s the revenue? So here's the idea. So here’s an idea. People won’t pay for most content (why should they? It’s free somewhere else isn’t it?) But they will pay for some content. Our hypothesis is that there is a market for content that is original, timely, novel, exclusive, unique or has quality and authority… that is relevant to me. With that in mind, we present a model underpinned by a media broker, where content is priced according to its relevance.

1. How to monetise in the world of free Discussion paper

2. Social and media used to be separate Personal Impersonal Free Pay Once upon a time, not long ago, people consumed media that was broadcast to them and they would pay for it. Social interactions were face to face and completely separate

3. People talked, media broadcast People talked to people. It was completely personal (not to mention free). Media broadcast, and that was completely impersonal. And paid for. How else would they make their money? Not paid for Paid for Personal Impersonal

4. Digital has changed things – everything is free Personal Impersonal SMS eMail Free Free Free Free Digital has changed that model. People have won; everything is completely free. There’s an online dialogue (the vision of the Cluetrain Manifesto is becoming reality). Everyone is talking. Never mind it is completely noisy

5. But it is also noisy With all these sources of these content it is getting noisy. The poor people are getting overwhelmed. A headache for them?

6. And copyable Anything that can be digitised can and will be copied It’s definitely a headache for the content providers. Anything that can be copied will be copied. In the world of the free, nothing can be monetised for long

7. iTunes and Kindle are plugging a hole http://www.flickr.com/photos/amymctigue/4138695618 DRM can try and plug the hole, but it is a sticking plaster. That content will eventually wiggle its way free. FREE

8. Criminalise your customers? So what are you going to do, criminalise your customers for making free your content? Whoever heard of that? Legal proceedings against your customers for enjoying your content and sharing with their friends? That’s what the record companies are doing. Time for new business models of course. In the land of the Free, where there is no physical product to be bought, what are you to do?

12. A compelling reason to pay World of free I will pay Filtered Curated Mine Status Recognition Content that is relevant and timely, that provides an coherent and themed experiences rather than the random cacophony of the web today

14. Start with content Professionally created Dedicated amateurs Customers Feeds Other sources The raw data Let’s start with the content. It’s noisy out there. There’s the professionally created content, but there is also the quality stuff that’s being turned out by dedicated amateurs - pro-ams in their bedrooms. Customers are also talking, all that social stuff, reviews, feedback, but how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Who is a good reviewer whose review you should trust and whose is just bluster you can ignore? Any content spawns other content. Cue feeds. And needing a catch all bucket for anything we’ve forgotten, we’ll add ‘other sources’ as well.

15. Add value to the content Professionally created Dedicated amateurs Customers Feeds Other sources Enrichment That’s the content sorted, now we need to add value to it. It’s not just about aggregation, indexing filtering and all those technical solutions to the problem. Curation is the key to monetising content. Taking all the content, all those sources and turning it into something that is meaningful to me. Professionally curated Transformation Aggregation Filtering Indexing Tagging

16. Monetising the content Professionally created Dedicated amateurs Customers Feeds Other sources Media broker All that content is really little more than data. Data that has a value depending upon its meaningfulness to me. Depending upon that meaning, we can start pricing it accordingly. Remember, I will pay (a little) for content that is Original, Timely, Authoritative, Novel, Exclusive, Unique and Quality. How much I will pay depends upon the importance of those factors at any point in time. When Prince William proposes to ??? and I’m a fanatical royalist or incorrigible gossip, I will pay for that breaking news if I can be first at the water cooler to announce it. If I can back it up with a juicy photo even better. But ten minutes later, when that news is in the public domain, when it is free, it still has value but not something I will pay for. Information market pricing Data landscape

17. How I want it, when I want it Professionally created Dedicated amateurs Customers Feeds Other sources Data landscape Information market pricing PC Mobile TV Other device The last piece in this puzzle is the delivery mechanism. The ability as me as a person to consume the content when I want, where I want in the way I want. Video on demand is a start. The video following me across devices is the next step. Add geo-location, augmented reality… What comes next? It is no longer a story of content, it is a holistic experience

19. Liquid pricing Old Now Unique Ubiquitous Original hackneyed Authoritative Unreliable Relevant to me I don’t care £££ 0 Information market pricing Data landscape What liquid pricing means – it’s not a binary thing, I either pay x for the content or I don’t get it. Flex the pricing depending upon what it means to me, where and when. The key with the pricing is to keep it cheap. And that means micro payments

20. Micropayments Ringtones SMS Alerts Wallpaper iTunes Apps Google adwords Games Micropayments are becoming more common Information market pricing Data landscape Micropayments are increasingly becoming the digital currency

22. Micropayments Ringtones SMS Alerts Wallpaper iTunes Apps Google adwords Games Reduce mental transaction cost Make it easy to use Community Earn stuff back Pay Earn Kerchingle P aypal quidco This barrier, the mental transaction cost can be broken down by making it easy. iTunes and the Apple app store have been so successful because they make it so easy. Why stop there? Why not let the customer earn as they become curators and contributors? Time for new business models.